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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei will arrive Cairo tonight to spend the last ten days of Ramadan in the country. “9 days actually”

He is arriving in a very critical time with new battles waiting for him and his family as the attack is reaching to other members of his family including his own offspring. I wonder what he will do in this new battle.

It seems that we are in the final stages and this is why the under belt attack has started and the Gamal Mubarak’s candidacy is began discussed more openly and more boldly.

ElBaradei is going to travel again next month but he will return to settle down in Egypt next October.

Dear follow blogger Ghada Abdel Aal is being labeled Egypt’s Carrie Bradshaw or the veiled Carrie Bradshaw with the international success of her book that is based on her successful blog with the same name “Wanna be a bride”{Wanna be a bride} was transformed in to a TV series by the same “3ayza Atgawez” but it is not our version of Sex and the city if Ghada is our veiled Carrie who is looking for Mr. Right , it is more of a sitcom starring Hend Sabri , directed by Ramy Emam and produced by Al Shorouk media production for the first time. You can watch the trailer below.

Qaddafi is visiting Rome and any good photographer should stalk him like a good paparazzo because honestly you will get interesting shots in a way or another , Qaddafi is against boredom
The king of kings of African jungles, Safari and deserts1 also the catwalks came with his usual Amazonian bodyguards and luckily Getty’s photographer did not leave as soon as Qaddafi reached the ground as what he caught later was not less interesting then what is coming from his own Libyan air force 1 or whatever he calls it.

Is this the price Ibrahim had to pay to return back home during his illness after all these years in self exile abroad !!?? Is this the same man that spoke on CNN from couple of months ago !!??
Saad El-Din Ibrahim will speak today on Orbit's Al Qahera Al Youm, Amr Adib has recorded with him before signing.
I am speechless and angry but this is not considered a blow more than a confirmation to what has been said about this man from very long time.

Update :

Ibrahim claimed he signed the statement because he supports the right of Gamal Mubarak to run for presidency as an Egyptian citizen in the same way he supports the right of Mohamed ElBaradei.

Today the saga of the Helwan workers continue in front of the military court , the saga that should be stopped now.
If you do not know what I am talking about , well the story started last August 3rd ,2010 when workers at Helwan factory for engineering industries protested the poor working conditions at the military factory after the explosion of a gas canister killing one worker “Ahmed Abdel Hady” and injuring 6 workers. After the protest the administration the factory promised the workers to improve the works’ safety conditions but on the August 8th a group of 25 workers who were referred to the National Authority for Military Production for investigation. 8 workers from that group were were brought before the military prosecution, who ordered their detention before referring them to a military court for trial on 21 August. The military court adjourned the hearings to the 28th then to 29th today.
The 8 workers’ names are : Ahmed Taher Hassan, Ayman Taher Hassan, Ahmed Mohammed Abdel Mohaimen, Mohamed Tarek Sayed, Wael Baioumy Mohamed, Hisham Farouk Eid, Ali Nabil Ali, and Tarek Sayed.
For the record the Egyptian media , the mainstream media is avoiding any reference to the trial from near or far despite it has not to do actually with the army and its secrets from near or far. Al Shorouk news published online the amnesty international statement about the incident but not so surprisingly the news removed hours later !!
We are not in war time so these workers will have to stand in front of a military court because they have exposed military secrets , why not to transfer them to a civilian court especially they are civilians and their offense is civilian too. This trial is an insult to the Egyptian army and our national security.
Strangely those who were responsible for the death of the 37 years old Ahmed Abdel Hady were not prosecuted in the same way.
This is the first time since 1952 workers stand in front of military court , the first time was the infamous Kafr El-Dawr’s Khamis and El-Bakery.

Nasr Allam , our current minister of irrigation and waters sources has joined twitter and has become the first Egyptian minister in office. He has joined the twitter world since last August 23rd and he is posting updates about his elections campaign in Sohag, he is running for the parliament there in Upper Egypt.
I hope that he uses twitter in more interesting stuff than posting his photos with very cute Upper Egyptians kids !!

Nasr with beautiful little girls

I hope that he tackles the constant water cuts not to mention the fact that there are still villages with no water access at all , this is besides the universal fact that our water is polluted and is not for human use in Egypt !! I am waiting to hear him speaking more about the Nile river basin crisis because this is why he was appointed in the first place.
We have a major crisis in water and I think that the minister will win more respect if he focuses on his problems than on his campaign.
By the way I am following in twitter currently Lebanese minister of energy Gebran Bassil and he is currently facing a huge crisis in electricity and water too in Lebanon just like Egypt but the difference is that the man is taking the challenge seriously and is acting for real , he has proposed a draft of new electricity law which Lebanese can get the draft to read it in their email through DM . It is normal thing that Lebanon has these crises considering the limited sources and the infrastructure which Israel addicted to destroy every couple of year !!

Update :

According to dear Mido the one who updates the minister's twitter feed is a journalist who is working in his campaign.

Friday, August 27, 2010

I think I will be the worst Scheherazade ever , the Scheherazade that forgets to complete the tale next night !!

I apologize as usual for not posting the 15th night of our radio Arabian nights at its correct time which is 4 PM Cairo local time , I am really sorry. My only excuse is that I was exhausted after writing the Islamphobic America post that took all night.

Now here is the 15th night of the Arabian nights where we listen to the misfortunate of the Barber of Baghdad’s family

For the past 20 years we have been waiting for the Al Tahrir square underground parking project losing hope and getting used to the ugly chaotic scene of the square.

An email from dear friends in Europe introduced me to the German Wohr Parking system and I was wondering why not to implement its Wohr multiparker 730 project at Al Tahrir square !!?? I find it suitable considering it was implemented before in Budapest near from an old church down town with its old streets !!??

If our regime is good at wasting our money , why not wasting it in a very useful project for real !!??

The Mubarak regime media claim shamelessly that former IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei was Pro Israel anti Egypt in the IAEA because he did not take so-called stand against Israel which has not signed the non nuclear proliferation treatment !! “he was vocal about this by the way”

Perez was praising Amano who was hailed in our official media as the man who will stop the Israeli nuclear ambition “it is actually a living nightmare” !!

I understand that Perez had to praise his distinguished guest especially after he was being ignored by the Israeli prime minister.

If you did a quick search online , you will find that Israel fought ElBaradei and accused him of being biased to Arabs and Muslims over and over. Our regime’s media claims otherwise in order to make people hate him , of course some may believe but let’s remember that this is a regime that sells gas to Israel so cheaply when there is a desperate need for it !!

This is a regime that cancels the broadcast of 30 episodes TV series after it has been fully shot because it can make the Israelis angry because it portrays Moshe Dayan as arrogant bastard when all Israel already knows this very well !!

Anyhow Gamal Mubarak is not our issue , our issue is these Christian women and girls disappearance cases creating fires no one wants to put off for real for the sake of the unity of this nation.

The incident of that girl from Upper Egypt happened after few weeks from the huge protests following the sudden disappearance of Camilla Shehata , the wife of that priest in Upper Egypt too.

Camilla officially returned back to the Church after staying for a while in her relatives’ house as she had a big fight with his priest husband , yes officially there were huge protests provoking Muslims because the family of Camilla knew about her fight with her husband and they refused to stop this circus. It was like a blow especially it came at the same time of divorce issue in the Church.

We thought that this circus would be over when Camilla appeared but we were more than wrong , it has just started. Camilla was found by the Police and the Police took her to the Church which sent her not to her home or her parents’ family but rather to unknown monastery !!

Then came the media race between newspapers that found out or rather claimed to be accurate that Camilla actually converted to Islam and Al Azhar let her down by sending her to the police which sent her to the Church. Dostor and Youm 7 are racing on publishing documents and photos they claim that prove her conversion to Islam. Now many Muslims believe that Camilla has been kidnapped and currently is being held captive and is brainwashed by the Church joining her sister Wafaa Constantine whom many believe was killed and buried in some monastery for converting to Islam.

Personally I find it hard to believe that Al Azhar let down Camilla or another converter in this way still what annoys me is the fact that Camilla has not appeared for once to speak about herself in public. The Church is insisting that she did not convert , well if she is still Christian ,why she does not come out from that monastery and stop that fire from spreading and destroying this nation !!??

What I am amazed from is the position of the human rights and women organizations in this country , they are so silent despite there is a possibility that a lady is being captive somewhere against her own well possibly because of her religious belief or even because her fight with her priest husband according to the official story. Do not these human rights organizations believe in the freedom of belief !!??

The Church can stop all this , it can put off this fire , if they let Camilla come out and say the truth; Christianity will not end if Camilla becomes a Muslim and Islam will not lose a thing if Camilla turns to be a Christian who suffers from bad marriage ; I know some Church men will think that both situations will make the Church look bad because we are speaking here about a priest’s wife but we are here dealing with unity and safety of this nation; its true national security .

Not only Camilla but also Wafaa Constantine too to close that door once and for all. Sometimes silence is not the best way to handle things with.

Did anyone by chance or by mistake watch Abdullah Kamal last night in Manshat on On TV !!?
What is this huge hate or rather jealousy towards all other newspapers in the market !!??
What is this huge hate or rather jealousy that reached to the level of predicting the disappearance of Al Masry Al Youm in 2012 !!??
Officially according to Al Ahram distribution Rosa Al Youssef Daily prints and distributes 10,000 ; of course of these copies return back to Rosa which is on the brink of bankruptcy.
Why does he hate Hisham Kassem to this level !!??
From an economic point of view the Egyptian market can handle another daily newspaper considering our population by the way , does not Kamal believe in open market system !!??
Why does he suspect Siyad Badawy’s intentions in Dostor where as he respects Ahmed Ezz to the level of predicting that his new channel will be a new school in TV journalism !!?? Who does he knew !!?
Abdullah Kamal is not a veteran journalist to be treated as if he were an expert in journalism in the first place.
My only explanation to all that hate is that awful man knows that his 15 minutes of fame will end as soon as this regime fails down and believe me insh Allah it will very soon.

Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris has offered one million pound as a reward to anyone with an information that can lead to the stolen Van Gogh Painting. This is a good move from Sawiris but what is the use when the Painting worth more than one million pound !!?? This painting was estimated in 1980s by more than $55 million for God sake !!
In case that you follow this blog and know something valuable about the whereabouts of this painting , you can call this number : 0224884500
Egypt informed the Interpol by the theft and hopefully this will result something in the end.
The debate in Egypt now is not about where the canvas went or why we accused the Italians or exactly how the theft happened but rather about the shameful neglect in the museum. There is no doubt this theft would not have happened if there is a real alarm and security systems in the museum which contains artifacts worth than $ 1 billion. We do not follow the theft updates but rather the accusations war between Farouk Hosni and Mohsen Shalaan. Shalaan accuses Hosni of making him the scapegoat insisting that he warned the ministry for years and no one listened where as Hosni insisted that the ministry allocation LE 20,000,000 to Shalaan to upgrade this museum and God only knows where he spent this money on !!

Empty frame

Hosni is as guilty as Shalaan , in fact he is more guilty , does not he have eyes to check the conditions of the museum himself for God sake !!?? This man was dying to become the head of the UNESCO !! Thank God he did not.
Now to the theft itself , well after seeing the empty frame of the painting and how careful the canvas was cut I believe it was an inside job , it was someone from inside the museum who had all that time to cut the canvas very very carefully.

This is something I did not imagine to see this in Mondandessin neighborhood . Nora Shalaby found that ad on the entrance of her building and despite it could be a small ad and not many people may have not gone to this protest still I find it as a sign of a big change happening in the Egyptian society.

Fisk actually did not say how Egyptians prepare for life after Mubarak because honestly they do not know what is going to happen after Mubarak so they can be prepared for ,they are hardly facing day to day challenges and crises like water cuts and power cuts that make them busy to plan for their future as they should as usual I am afraid.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

There is not much about this in our local media except Al Masry Al Youm yesterday : Qatar jails two Egyptians for life for spying. Qatar from its side imposed a news blackout where as Egyptian officials act as if there is nothing promising Al Masry Al Youm with new developments once as they know more.

It is not a secret that the Egyptian Qatari relations are the worst among the Egyptian Arab relations but one must wonder about this news and this case as two Egyptians are being imprisoned for life time ; yes most probably they will be pardoned but this is a dangerous charge.

It is a naïve to wonder why an Arab regime would spying on another regime despite there is no direct reference to which country those Egyptians allegedly work for in Al Masry Al Youm , other Arabic newspapers speak about Egypt. Again I do not find it absurd to spy on another country but the absurd is how to leave our men like that !!

Those e two alleged spies are Sayid Afifi and Nabil Abdel Bassir.

Sayid Afifi worked as a researcher in the Qatari ministry of interior where as Nabil Abdel Bassir worked in Al Arab newspaper though not in the editorial stuff but in advertising !!

I am afraid this is not a matter of mutual relations but rather the case of Egyptians which are in a desperate need to their embassy which should be more active and helping these two men will not make Egypt look bad in Qatar because already the Qatari regime dislikes us already. Russia restored back all its spies for God sake.

By the way why we let that Qatari prince who killed many Egyptians in that deadly fast and furious race near the Cairo airport !!? Can someone please remind me !!??

A good question to be asked now especially with the so-called ground zero mosque debate, a good question to be asked now especially with the United States senate elections are on the doors.
I believe now what is happening in the United States is a dirty game from the GOP to win more votes in the coming elections nothing more,nothing else ;what else will be better than using the old tricks used in the presidential elections from spreading rumors about Obama’s religious belief and use again 9/11 to play with the emotions of the masses .
By the way there is a new poll in the blog : Is America Islamophobic ??

Sakina Fouad , the famous Egyptian writer and journalist spoke about our wheat crisis in On TV’s Manshat last week and since then I have not read or find any reaction about what this great lady has said in the media despite its importance , is it fear ?? or there is nothing can be said more !!?? Check the video after the break. “In Arabic”

From couple of days I suggested in twitter that Egyptians use hashtag “#Egyptpowercuts” to report blackouts across the country , I did not know this idea was being implemented in an interactive better way in Al Masry Al Youm thanks to its web team.

“Darkness nights in Egypt” a new interactive service from Al Masry Al Youm where citizens can report power cuts to the website whether through phone or email or twitter or form in order to documents the case.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Ok guys this is from inside the house itself ; Al Dostor newspaper has got new owner according to Ibrahim Eissa’s announcement to the journalists from couple of hours ago.
For the past months there were various rumors about the proposals from different businessmen and tycoons to buy Al Dostor and Sawt Al Oma from Essam Fahmi. Wait for more updates about our favorite newspaper’s new owners.

Update#1

Egyptian media tycoon and the head of Al Wafd party Dr. Siyad Badawy has bought the newspaper in partnership with businessman Reda Edward. Al Dostor chief in editor Ibrahim Eissa stated to On TV channel that there will be no changes in the editorial policies of the newspaper
Badawy and Edward bought the newspaper for a big number which I assume is the biggest in the history of Egyptian press between LE 16-25 million !! There are even sources speaking of higher numbers. There were long negotiations between Badawy and Fahmi for months. It is worth to mention that Fahmi is a Wafd party member who expressed his support to Badawy during the last party's elections openly thought I do not think that this had to do with the deal.
The new board of directors will be made of Siyad Badawy , Reda Edward and Ahmed Essam Fahmi as the publisher of the newspaper ; Ahmed is the son of Essam Fahmi.
Badawy owns a huge TV network called Al Hayat TV and huge pharmaceutical group that operates in Egypt , Sudan and Saudi Arabia called Sigma.
I do not know much about Reda Edward except that he works in education and he is member in the Wafd party too.
I expressed my views about Badawy before and currently I have mixed thoughts and concern , for one side Dostor really needs good and strong finance and from one side I fear from the real intentions behind the acquisition of this newspaper.

Ibrahim Sabri of Egypt’s national team of Archery has scored Egypt’s first gold medal in archery for the first time in the Youth Olympics 2010 , in fact in any Olympics in that sport as far as I recall
His name is Ibrahim Sabri , please recall that name because he will return back home to Egypt and the media will ignore him as expected. Sabri won in an amazing victory as far as I understand.
I know members of our Egyptian national team of archery with its different kinds personally and I know that they are trying their best to score excellent results and they have already scored excellent results in international competitions. It is enough that the team is the one that spent on that sport unlike our dear footballers !!
This is a good cheerful news.
By the way Egypt beat Singapore 50-7 in the handball !!

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei has called his follow Egyptians to boycott the coming parliamentary elections which will be held in next November , his call is not a surprise because the man has been clear since day one that he will not participate in any charade held by that regime and what a charade the elections are in Egypt !!

Dr. ElBaradei is not the first politician to call the Egyptians to boycott the elections and his theory is that boycotting the elections will be the first step towards the civil disobedience not to mention in perfect circumstance boycotting the parliamentary elections will create a constitutional crisis that can down the regime itself ; again this is in perfect utopian circumstance and as long as all opposition parties and groups besides independent candidates participate in the elections there is no hope to create a serious constitutional crisis for the NDP if I am not mistaken.

But how can the Egyptian people boycott the parliamentary elections if they are already boycotting it !!?? The majority of the Egyptian people do not have or plan to have a voting id in the first place while the votes of the minority that has a voting id are not counted !!

How can we boycott an election that its results is already made and tailored !!?? Even if we boycott it , this regime will not find hard to fabricate the results as it always does and we all remember what happened in the last Shura elections for God Sake !!

Whether we go or not , the NDP will win, whether we go or not , the NDP will form the next Cabinet.

This is my dilemma , this is my question ; what is the use !!??

I support Dr. ElBaradei and I understand why he wants us to boycott the elections , still this is not Lebanon but rather Egypt. This is a shameless regime that does not care for its image abroad nor inside , this is a shameless regime that is fighting for its survival madly so I hope Dr. ElBaradei to address this matter more widely and tell us as Egyptians how to boycott the elections for real or even better why !!? I got a Voting id and I fear if I do not go that my vote will go to the NDP candidate.

Boycotting the elections will not stand against the NDP to a give a legitimate touch to their fraud.

Dr. ElBaradei is going to spend the last 10 days of Ramadan in Egypt if I am not mistaken.

P.S Badawy of Al Wafd is speaking of a boycotting possibility after rejecting this talk months ago !!

I know that may be could a belated news yet it is never too late to share it ; the people of Cleopatra neighborhood hanged a handmade paper lantern with Khaled Said’s image as part of the traditional Ramadan street decorations.

This Cupid statue’s value was estimated by millions too considering its history !! Already I do not know what it was doing at the garden when it was supposed to be inside according to those who working at the museum.

Mahmoud at the museum (Getty)

Abdel Magid Mahmoud , the public persecutor visited the museum today and he found out the 27 cameras and alarm devices in the museum are and were all broken during the crime !!
He found out that there are 7 guards only protecting this big museum with multimillion treasures and those guards are not capable of protecting anything at all !!
Mahmoud has banned the head of the arts section Mohsen Shalaan and other 8 employees at the museum from travel till the end of the investigation. There is no doubt that those who stole it had some help from inside , the canvas was cut from inside the frame for God sake , this needs time !!
Shalaan accused minister Farouk Hosni of neglecting the museum for more than a decade and that the surveillance cameras were broken for the last 15 years.
Most people are sure that Hosni will get away from this scandal as he always does.

Updated #1

Here is a video shot in the museum from a year ago based on the date of its upload , this video shows the level of neglect in the museum , already I assume that this video was shot by a mobile phone without a permission from the administration !! You can watch it after the break

Here is the 10th night from our Arabian nights or to be accurate our 12th night. Tonight is the last part of King Luqman and Salama’s tale and the beginning of the Barber of Baghdad tale.

Some of you will wonder where the King Luqman’s court has gone especially that Scheherazade finished and stopped at Salama’s tale ; well Salama’s tale is already the answer of minister Hasan to King Luqman’s order to find the slave , Hasan I believe wanted to say to his king that not all what we want we can get ; Salama wanted to save his brother but in the end he failed when he destroyed the sword and the ring to stop their evil.

You can check the first parts of King Luqman's tale at the related posts section.

I promised to post the videos as soon as I found them and here they are , just after the break , please continue reading the post because there are interesting new human rights case we all should discuss now.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Van Gogh’s Poppy flower aka Vase with Viscaria has been stolen from Mahmoud Khalil’s museum in Giza earlier today and Farouk Hosni is extremely angry , this is what we have all known today.
Well from few hours ago the Egyptian police managed to find the painting and arrest the thief in Cairo international airport in his attempt to smuggle the original painting which is worth than $ 50 million outside the country.
There is not available further information about the thief or how he managed to steal the painting except that he is an Italian and he managed to replace the original Gogh’s painting with a fake one !!
For the record this was not the first time or the first attempt to steal the Poppy flower from Cairo , back in 1970s there was an attempt as I recall and the security found it before it would leave our country.
This is not the first time expensive historical paintings stolen from our museums in time of Farouk Hosni , we all remember the Mohamed Ali family’s painting theft from last year.
The Mahmoud Khalil’s museum includes treasures from around the world and yet it has not enough security as it seems , where are Farouk Hosni and Zahi Hawas !!??

There was an accomplice to the Italian tourist , another Italian girl.

The police managed to catch the thief after checking the visitors logs , already only 11 tourists visited the museum today , two of them were suspicious enough as they headed to the bathroom before leaving the museum so quickly just before the theft would be discovered. The other 9 visitors left after the theft were searched for the canvas. As soon as the police as informed with that theft , there was a strict orders from the MOI to all Egyptian ports to open their eyes for that treasure "What if it were smuggled through Al-Salloum !!".

The question is how the Italian couple managed to replace the canvas when there are surveillance cameras in the museum as I know

It seems that this is original painting after all because later Youssef Idris once said in 1988 that we had a fake one and the original was sold in an auction in London for $40 million !!

Updates #2:

Just from few moments ago Farouk Hosni , our minister of Culture said on TV on air that he does not know if the Police managed to restore the canvas or not , he has just heard from the media like us !!!

The surveillance cameras are broken

Updates #3

Hosni has called every on air night talk show to insist that the painting was not recovered despite the news hit the wire services for hours now, he blamed the journalists at the airport of spreading false news !!!

Where is the canvas !!??

The Cameras and the alarm systems in the museum have been broken for 3 months now !!!!

Here is the 9th night from our Arabian nights or to be accurate our 11th night. I apologize again for the belated posting , there was wrong in the internet connection that made me upload the file several times plus I was invited in another

Today is the 8th night with Salama whose luck will turn again , a new twist with a new destiny.

You can check the first parts of King Luqman's tale at the related posts section.

Today was busy day in Egypt despite we are in the weekend , we had two important public political Iftars : The 6th April youth Iftar dish party at Al Azhar park in Cairo and the Khaled Said Iftar in Alexandria.
The Khaled Said Iftar was more important with my all respect and admiration to the 6th April youth because this Iftar was a direct message that we did not forget Khaled Said in Ramadan as the regime wished for.
The choice of the 10th of Ramadan date was not random , in fact it was more than perfect , more than a weekend ; it is 10th of Ramadan, our Yom Kippur war Hijri anniversary with all its significance.
The Iftar followed by a silent stand were planned to be held in front of Khaled’s house in Cleopatra neighborhood. The Iftar and silent stand were planned too in other 5 governorates. Mrs. Laila Said , the mother of Khaled invited the youth to Khaled’s Iftar as they are her children and it is not the first Ramadan without her youngest son.

The Iftar and silent stand took place in Alexandria along and they were successful yet violent as usual when protesters began to chant against Mubarak,his son and the MOI.
Just check the photos below